English Verse: Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History

English verse of four stresses is chiefly to be divided into two groups: that representing the primitive Germanic tendency to emphasize the element of accent rather than the cou...

The Cesura is called _masculine_ when it follows an accented syllable. (For examples, see previous specimen from Gascoigne.) It is called _feminine_ when it follows an unaccente...

are pointedly addressed _both_ to the ear and to the understanding, the rarity of the combination of aspects contributes a strain of feeling partly akin to that with which we fo...

And now the weary world's great medicine, Sleep, This learned host dispensed to every guest, Which shuts those wounds where injured lovers weep, And flies oppressors to relieve...

Apon the Midsumer evin, mirrest of nichtis, I muvit furth allane, neir as midnicht wes past, Besyd ane gudlie grene garth, full of gay flouris, Hegeit, of ane huge hicht, with h...

Nearly all modern writers on the theory of verse have admitted that English words have no fixed syllabic quantities such as are postulated for the classical languages, but that...

The following extracts from important critical discussions are selected with reference to their bearing on two questions: Is metre an essential or only an incidental element of...

Obviously there can be no fixed limits to the number of degrees of intensity recognized in syllabic accent or stress. It is common to speak of three such degrees: syllables havi...

Ne mai no lewed lued libben in londe, be he never in hyrt so haver of honde, So lerede us biledes. [gh]ef ich on molde mote wiþ a mai, y shal falle hem byfore & lurnen huere lay...

I. FOUR-STRESS VERSE 151 A.--Non-syllable-counting 151 B.--Syllable-counting (Octosyllabic Couplet) 160 II. FIVE-STRESS VERSE 174 A.---The Decasyllabic Couplet 174 B.--Blank Ver...

II. THE FOOT AND THE VERSE 24 One-stress iambic 25 Two-stress iambic 26 Two-stress trochaic 27 Two-stress anapestic 28 Two-stress dactylic 30 Two-stress irregular 31 Three-stres...

III. THE STANZA 62 Tercets 63 Quatrains 69 Refrain Stanzas 78 Various Stanza-forms abccb 91 ababb 91 aabbb 91 aabcdd 91 aaaabb 92 ababab 92 ababcc 92 ababbcc (Rime royal) 93 aba...

THE PLACE AND FUNCTION OF THE METRICAL ELEMENT IN POETRY 413 Aristotle 413 Sir Philip Sidney 416 Samuel Johnson 417 Wordsworth 417 Coleridge 420 Shelley 422 William Hazlitt 423...